Effects of different tooth grinding procedures on the occurrence of tooth injuries, skin lesions, performance and behaviour of suckling piglets.

Background: Immediately after birth, newborn piglets fight to establish a teat order. During this process, lesions appear on the piglets' faces and on the sows' teats, which is why tooth resection is carried out on many farms in Germany even though it is known that this procedure is frequently resulting in pulp openings. The opening of a pulp cave is suspected to cause painful tooth alterations and may be an entrance for infectious agents. The purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of tooth resection on skin lesions, development of bodyweight and behaviour in suckling piglets. Four days prepartum, 110 sows in farrow-to-finish production were assigned to one of three treatments. Litters had their teeth left intact (control group, CG), ground with a tea-cup roller head (Tea-cup head grinder group, TCG, Wilofa Diamant, D-56,133 Fachbach, Germany) or ground with a diamond rolling head (rolling head grinder group, RG, IBS/E Company Proxxon GmbH, 54,343 Föhren, Germany). The number of pulp openings in the RG and TCG was examined using a random sample. Piglet body weight and skin lesion scores were recorded within the first 24 h after birth and during each week of the suckling period. Each sow's udder was examined before farrowing, in the second week of lactation and at weaning. The behaviour of the litters from nine sows was video-recorded throughout the suckling period. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of tooth grinding by a tea-cup head (compared to grinding by a diamond roller head and no grinding [control group]) on the behaviour and average daily gain of piglets as well as on skin lesions on sow udder.

Results: The number of dental injuries was significantly greater in the RG than in the TCG (p < 0.01). Head lesions on piglets were significantly more common in the CG than in the RG (p = 0. 02). Compared to CG piglets, TCG piglets had a significantly greater weight at the end of the suckling period (p = 0.02). No significant difference between treatments was found in the sows' udder (parenchyma, skin, or teat) or in the behaviour of the litters.

Conclusion: As tooth grinding is frequently inducing pulp openings, the necessity of the procedure should be carefully and critically scrutinised. In case tooth resection seems inevitable until the underlying management problems have been solved, the Tea-cup grinding head should be used due to significantly fewer pulp openings.